Life Skills

Something that drug and alcohol addicts often miss out on is learning life skills, such as how to find and keep a job. When people start abusing drugs and alcohol at a very young age, their inability to work is often impeded. Virtually all mental, spiritual, personal, and cognitive growth ceases when one starts abusing drugs and alcohol. It is like pressing the pause button on an individual’s growth towards adulthood. If a person hasn’t become experienced yet in the American workforce, then he or she is going to have a hard time finding a job not just while an addict, but even after completing rehab and getting clean.

The foundation of financial stability in this nation is employment, and so many addicts miss out on that thanks to their addictions. Addiction almost always takes priority for drug and alcohol abusers over retaining a job, so some addicts end up losing their employment and becoming homeless as a result of their substance abuse.

Recovering addicts and individuals who have completed rehab and are trying to start their lives anew must be able to keep a job after they complete rehab. Just like everyone else in society, they must be able to pay the rent and other obligations to prevent them from relapsing. Fortunately for them, many inpatient treatment centers teach patients how to retain employment at their rehab centers.

Many treatment programs have seen the massive need for work-life skills amongst their clients. Because of this, they have begun to teach recovering addicts how to find a simple job, and how to hold that job once it’s found, and how to do well at that job. What’s been found too is that if the job is relatively straightforward, like taking on employment in retail, recovering drug users are far more likely to retain it and stick with it than they would be for a very strict or high demand job.

While it’s true that not all entry level jobs that an addict picks out as being a good choice are stress-free, many of them are, and many of them can give a recovering addict the chance to get back on his or her feet. Recovering addicts who know how to and can retain employment can start building a strong financial foundation right after they get out of rehab, so they’ll be much less likely to relapse in the long run because of it. It was found that recovering addicts who don’t seek and obtain gainful employment after rehab are twice as likely to abuse drugs and alcohol.

History of Life Skills in Rehab

Life skills are something that is still relatively new to the addiction rehabilitation community. It hasn’t been available for long, though it certainly has been groundbreaking. What was found in the late 1990s and the early 2000s was that, no matter how good a rehab program was, individuals were still relapsing after rehab. Why was this? What was the hidden factor that was causing so many to struggle and fail at their goals and objectives?

It was observed that almost all recovering addicts who were relapsing did not have jobs. Unemployment probably the most commonly shared characteristic of them all. Many of them had gotten and tried to hold a job, but they had been unsuccessful in keeping. Many others didn’t even try to get a job once they had completed rehab.

Serenity’s Life Skills Program

Life skills is now a familiar term that we hear in the rehabilitation community. These two words in conjunction imply skills one would learn to help navigate more efficiently through life at the workplace. It would also suggest the teaching of the skills necessary to be able to go out and find a job. This is the goal at Serenity. We want our clients to avoid relapse by staying functional in society and feel empowered by their success.

Serenity helps addicts in recovery find and hold jobs by:

Teaching clients how actually to go out and become gainfully employed.

Showing clients how to do well in their chosen field and be the best they can be on a daily basis.

What we’ve noticed at Serenity is that, when young people start using and abusing alcohol and drugs, they frequently miss out on some of the life’s most valuable lessons, including things like finishing school and obtaining and holding a job. It is believed by most within the addiction recovery field and in the sober, recovering community that early substance abuse stunts emotional maturity for anyone who does drugs or drinks to excess. This can make getting a job after rehab a little tricky and challenging, particularly when it comes to young adults. We have seen a lot of success from including works skills in our program.

Why Life Skills are Effective

When chemical dependency and addiction take center stage in anyone’s life, significant role models and persons of authority lose that authority and the ability to influence the person in positive, nurturing ways.

If you would like to know more about the life skills program at Serenity, please call our toll-free number now. One of our representatives can answer your questions and help you choose a program that is best suited for your needs.

This is a no obligation free phone call and all information will be kept 100% confidential.

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Serenity Point is a treatment facility where our mission is to help our patients discover the strength and confidence within themselves to end their direction towards a lifestyle free from the bonds of addiction.

Serenity Point is a treatment facility where our mission is to help our patients discover the strength and confidence within themselves to end their direction towards a lifestyle free from the bonds of addiction.